Chapter 11

Olin was trying hard to regain his composure and the inner serenity he needed to meditate. But it was difficult to do with the things Skywalker had told him, and he was still trying to decide how to react to it. It was a step down the path to the Dark Side. And yet, Skywalker had admitted as much, and had turned away from it with a concious choice.

What had amazed Olin the most, Skywalker's remorse and feelings of guilt were entirely genuine, he was sure of that. Olin wasn't sure why he knew that since it was well within Skywalker's range of abilities to make it look like he was, but something made Olin believe him.

Oddly that made his decision on how to react to everything even worse. His base instincts told him to disown Skywalker and never talk to him again, but... the needs of the mission aside, he had to admit to himself that blaming it all on him would be wrong. It was strange, but for the first time in Force knew how long he really empathized with the so-called Chosen One, and not only because of his honesty. It was because he had been more than willing to pay the price for what he had done, both here on Tatooine and because of his other infractions against the code. He had been willing to leave the Order once the gravest danger was over, he had been willing to accept whatever punishment the Council deemed appropriate, aside from leaving his family, and he had rejected the offered seat on the Council because he had deemed himself unworthy. What was more, Olin now knew that Skywalker had never been comfortable with his status as the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force.

Different people had different methods for dealing with pressure, and Olin felt that Skywalker would have been better served with not lashing out at everyone around him, but it hadn't done it just because he was brash, too self-confident and a bit egoistical. He had been all that and still had those flaws, but no more than any other human being. Olin had been told time and again that the experiences around the Exodus had humbled him and to an extent he had seen it before, but only now had he understood just how far that had gone.

The great Anakin Skywalker, known to be the most self-assured Jedi in the Order had been about as self-assured as... well, he hadn't been. He had calmly told Olin what had happened, including how he had been so scared that Padmé might reject him that he had really considered lying to her even though she knew him well enough to see through it. After that he hadn't waited for Olin's reaction and had instead just walked out and away into the night.

Olin huffed at his melodramatic choice of words.

At any rate, if there was anyone he was angry with right now, it was the Council. As much as he wanted to be angry with Skywalker, and a part of him really was, it was the Council who had acted wrong in all this. True, to say that they should have foreseen what was happening to Skywalker's mother or that they should have punished him harder instead of offering him a kriffing seat on the Council was to assume that they had the same gifts of foresight as Skywalker did at a time when Palpatine had so successfully cast a veil over the living Force.

Yet Olin was angry with them for letting of Skywalker with what was essentially a slap on the wrist. True, ejecting him from the Order entirely would have been galactically stupid at a time when they had just lost most of their number and were on the run from the rest of the galaxy, but there were plenty of other forms of punishment. Of course the most obvious, trying to make him leave his family would have done nothing but make them all run to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

What was more, now he understood Skywalker's resentment of the Council a lot better. He'd known the gist of what had happened with Ahsoka Tano, but he hadn't really expected the Council to that dismissive or just how much that had angered Skywalker. Not so much because he saw it as a personal slight, though this being him there was some of that. It was more because he genuinely cared for his old Padawan, like a good master should. But he went beyond that. What was more, to Skywalker Tano was like the younger sister he'd never had and one of the few that had always accepted him for what he was and not seen him as either the Chosen One or as someone inherently dangerous and not a proper Jedi.

Olin was not above admitting that he was among the latter group.

With all that in mind it wasn't hard to see why Skywalker had lost faith.

What was hard to see was that he allowed himself to stray as far towards the Dark Side as he had.

To be fair to him though, Olin wasn't so sure how he would have felt and reacted in a similar situation.

And that was the crux of it. Skywalker was as flawed as any other human being, and Olin knew that he would never be able to completely forgive him what he'd done, but in the end he did show remorse and he was desperate to follow the ways of the Jedi. And yet he had strayed farther towards the Dark Side than most Jedi. But the philosophy of redemption did seem to apply to him, since he hadn't taken that last, crucial step over the brink.

Could it be that many, probably Olin included, had expected the Chosen One to be perfect in every which way and disliked him because he wasn't? That was something new to consider.

But even if it was, it didn't absolve the Council of their responsibility. They should have punished Skywalker come what may, yet they had chosen convenience over doing what was right. He could see their point and probably would have acted similarly, but it was the principle of the thing. If anyone was to blame for his current predicament it was the Jedi Council.

For the next hour or two Olin meditated on what to do next. By the time the sun rose, he had yet to come to a decision.

Anakin meanwhile had been trawling the streets of Mos Eisley without a clear direction in mind. He felt relieved after having told Olin everything, but he had sensed that his continued presence in the hovel they'd rented would be counter-productive, so he'd left. Despite feeling actually relieved at having told Olin, knowing that the other Jedi would not act rashly and always put the mission first. What would happen when they returned to Weitun was another matter entirely. But he didn't feel worried about that right now.

He pushed it out of his mind. He had spent the last day worrying and constantly rethreading his steps, but he was sure that he had done the right thing, and it wasn't as if he could do much about it right now. He still wasn't sure why he had told Olin everything. It might be because he knew that the other Jedi wouldn't take the deception well if he discovered it. Anakin couldn't understand why Olin had taken it so personal, as if it had been kept from him and no one else, but then, they hadn't been all that close as Padawans.

Looking up, he saw that he was in front of the docking bay where they had arrived. He didn't know why he had come here, but on a whim, he went inside, circumventing the laughable security measures. If someone asked, he could legitimately claim that he had merely wanted to check up on his ship.

It still stood there as he had parked it, and even though he could see that there had been some activity in the docking bay from the footsteps in the sand and the tracks of at least two or three different droids, none of the external security measures had been tripped.

"What a piece of junk!" Luke exclaimed as he saw the ship for the first time. He was accompanied by the two droids and an old, tired version of Obi Wan.

The Corellian was doing something below the ship and came forward.

"She'll make .5 past lightspeed." he replied indignantly, "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts. I made a lot of special modifications myself."

"But. We're a little rushed, so if you'll just get on board we'll get out of here." he said with a smile that women probably found charming.

Luke clambered on board.

Shortly after, a squad of Stromtroopers broke through the door.

"Stop that ship!"

"Blast them!"

A blasterfight broke out in the Docking Bay, and the Corellian raced towards the boarding ramp, felling several stormies with a modified DL-44 even as their shots impacted in the ship's armour around him. He was up the ramp and almost in the cockpit before it had fully closed.

"Chewie, get us out of here!"

Luke, Obi Wan and the Droids strapped themselves in around the holochess table, with 3PO remarking on how much he hated space travel.

The Wookie fired up the engines, and within seconds the ship was up and lifting out of the Docking Bay. The engines sounded healthy and far more powerful than they should be on a YT-1300.

In the cockpit, Chewie pointed out a sensor alert to the Corellian.

"Looks like an Imperial cruiser. Our passengers must be hotter than I thought."

He rose from the pilot's seat. "Try and hold them off. Angle our Deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to lightspeed."

Chewie did as he was told and banked the Ship away from the ship that looked like an Imperial-Class Star Destroyer more than a cruiser.

As he had set the computer to make it's calculations, he noticed something else.

"Stay sharp. There's two more of them coming in. They're gonna to try and cut us off."

Luke and Obi Wan came scrambling into the back of the cockpit. "Why don't you out rum them, I thought you said this thing was fast!"

"Watch your mouth kid or you're gonna find yourself floating home." the Corellian replied, more angry at the interruption than at what Luke had said. "We'll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace."

He flipped a few controls. "Besides, I know a few manoeuvres. We'll loose em."

The ship was sent into a series of twisting turns and banks that belied her apparent age, allowing none of the Imperial gunners to land a hit, even though they were at nearly point-blank range.

"Here's where the fun begins."

"How long until you can make the jump to lightspeed?" Obi Wan asked.

"Take a few moments to get the coordinates from the navicomputer."

Right on cue, a few blasts hit the ship.

"Are you kidding? At the rate they're gaining?" Luke exclaimed, pointing at the sensor readouts. The Corellian turned towards him.

"Travelling through hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy. Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"

More and more hits rocked the ship.

"What's that flashing?" Luke asked.

"We're loosing our deflector shield. Go strap yourself in, I'm going to make the jump to lightspeed."

The galaxy brightened and they moved faster, almost as if crashing a barrier. Stars become streaks as the ship made the jump to hyperspace.

The vision faded and Anakin once more found himself standing in front of the ship. What was it with that man? It was the same Corellian he'd seen with Leia, although a few years younger. The ship looked a lot like a beat-up, modified version of the Stellar Envoy, but then YT-1300 were not exactly uncommon. Still, if it was the same ship... he quickly dismissed the thought that some notion of fate or some omnipotent being bent in directing his every move wanted this ship to be inexorably tied to his family, along with that Corellian. But even if the man existed, Anakin swore to himself that he would keep Leia away from him. At any cost.

tbc

Yes, I skipped over the conversation itself. I tried to write it, but what I came up with plain sucked, then I deleted it and the next run barely got off the ground. Generally this was difficult to write. I hate to use "English as a second language" as an excuse, but I found that putting my thoughts to paper was hard enough in German, never mind English. So, sorry for the long delay.

Also, opinions expressed in this piece are not automatically those of the author.

That Force-vision... I kind of said that I wasn't going to do those any more, but it begged to be written. Not the best place since Vader never actually set foot on Tatooine during ANH (as far as I know) but I wrote this coming off a stomach bug (think reverse eating, splitting headaches and a bit of fiever) and I wanted to get this done. That the vision just happens to be cut just like the scene from a certain movie is a complete coincidence.